Dimension Tripper
Warm Welcome "...Well..." Mina sighed as the girls got closer to their destination. Judging from the look of the city from a distance, it was strictly Asian-themed, looking more like an older Japanese city than anything else. Every city they saw made Mashiro's look pitiful, then she remembered they lived underground, and knew something must be spectacular. "Marin, at least we'll have a story to tell our future kid. How mommy and mommy almost got eaten." Marin pouted at this. "...We'll survive, darn you. I want to have a long future ahead of us, alright!?" Smacking Mina in the back of the head; but indeed, the city was a glorious sight. A bustling environment full of demons that stuck out like sore thumbs- but nobody commented on it were everywhere. As for the architecture, skyscrapered littered the area from the skies- but there was fresh greenery everywhere and the city possessed olden-style temples; a perfect blend of both worlds. Kisara's eyes lit up like stars. "....W~ow~" She hadn't seen anything of this sort before; there was no such thing as a mix of old and new in the locations she'd travelled to. Mina cast her eyes towards the sky, and, true to Maka's word from her call to Ragna, there was a large crack in the sky. Mina frowned. "How...how is that possible...this kind of thing usually signals a massive amount of reiatsu converging in one area...the sheer pressure of it ripping apart space itself..." "Well, shit." Kisara felt physically sick from the pressure; her face went blue before Magira Erebera kicked in, allowing her to stand to her feet. "...Never felt something like that before. Honestly, I don't want to feel it again. Ever." Marin clutched her stomach, growling in pain. "Ow...it hurts...my tummy hurts..." She countered this by applying a thin layer of demonic energy around her body, dispelling the pressure. "Okie! We need to stop this..." The girls proceeded through the city, heading towards what was obviously the castle, the largest building in the entire area, located in what could be described as "dead center". The building itself was a large, two-story building that appears rather Oriental on the outside; almost like a pagoda. The girls stopped as they reached the entrance, and were immediately accosted by guards that stopped them. "Hey!" Mina jerked her arm away from one of them. "Maka herself sent for us! Go check her if you don't believe us." The guards naturally left one of them there as they went into the castle. Mina groaned. "You think there'd be a welcoming committee..." However, after a five minute wait, they were instead greeted by the small form of Maka herself, who was smiling broadly. "Hello, everyone. I'm really glad you could make it, even though Uncle sent you not too long ago. I know we have business, but would you like to come in and make yourself comfortable first?" Just her smile oozed adorable. Melissa's nonplussed expression contorted into a one of pure glee. It wasn't subtle. At all. "...Oh she is so CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE! I wanna hug her and hug her and hug her and hug her~" Her mind seemed to devolve; making her a cuddle bug for this miniature Demon King. "T-thank you?" Maka was a tad bewildered by this, but she led them into the castle, and up into what seemed like a very large lounge room. It was complete with comfortable plush chairs, sofas, even the odd bed, as well as various means of entertainment ranging from books to board games. Apparently, this castle was bigger on the inside. "Please, make yourselves at home." Marin sat down on a set; fidgetting slightly- it was obvious that she felt uncomfortable around the other two Demon Kings- but at least, they didn't annoy her as much as Mashiro did. "Do you have any plans? Wouldn't plugging the crack in the sky with an equally powerful reiatsu work?" "No..." Maka frowned as she took a seat herself, crossing her legs. "Applying force to any sort of crack is a very bad idea. This isn't a contest of strength, unlike how many people fight with spirit energy. This is damage that has already been done. If we apply any sort of force to it, it may only break, and release the denizens from the fourth circle of hell down upon us all. Besides, no one in the Makai uses reiatsu, so even if that plan worked, we wouldn't have the necessary means to put it into action." Mina frowned. "There is a way to patch up a crack like that. When you compared it to a wound, I suppose the way to patch it would be "healing". But I've only seen it done by Shinigami...Quincy, our way is to destroy. We wouldn't patch that crack. We would simply destroy the threat behind it, after the point of no return had passed." Marin flung her arms about, whining "But I hate Shinigami! Why do THEY have to help...worthless spirits..." "I'm honestly not to keen on it either..." Mina sighed. Her father had told her many things about Shinigami, but always from a negative perspective. As such, it had an impact on her. Maka seemed interested, her wide-green eyes shining. "Shinigami? I think Daddy did say something like that...but he said just get the men in black to help. And...well, Uncle Ragna is a man...and he wears black...so...." It was an understandable mistake for a child at least. Kisara slammed her fist on the table lightly. It made a small sound; naturally, it wasn't to intimidate, but rather, it was to make sure that people listened to her. "Okay, listen up. Marin, Mina, whether you like it or not, we should really try and get the Shinigami to do it. Right now, it's our only choice; and lastly, if there's no more options; if we can't do it, then everything will go to hell...er, it'll get progressively worse very, very soon." The Grim Reapers "There isn't any need." The area began to glow as a strange, circular door appeared, opening right in the middle of Maka's lounging room. Out of it stepped a man dressed in a black kimono with a white haori over it, and wore a large sword strapped to his back. He had spiky black hair, and rather stunning blue eyes. At his side was a rather diminutive woman with purple eyes, and cropped black hair, dressed in very similar attire with a wooden-badge adorned on one of her sleeves. "The Gotei 13 was already aware of the crack in the dimensions, and we were sent to deal with it." The young man spoke again, looking towards Maka. "Pleased to meet you, your highness. My name is Dyan Arashi. This is my wife from hell, Hanako Arashi." He gestured to the smaller woman. "These..." He gestured to several Shinigami filing out of the Senkaimon, wearing heavily stylised outfits, as well as strange white veils over their heads. "...are the Kidō Corps members who will be helping patch the tear in the dimensional fabric. I'm here to act as back-up." "It's very great to have you here!" Maka smiled, overjoyed that this situation would be resolved so soon. Her guards, who looked like they were ready to launch an assault, backed down when they saw the new arrivals meant no harm. "It seems the Shinigami have gotten better at their response time..." Mina murmured, looking away from the new group. Marin growled at the black-haired woman, "...Took you your damn sweet time. Stupid useless Shinigami always being late and good-for-nothings...." Hanako immediately stomped over to Marin, shaking her furiously and exclaiming, "Shaddup, demon girl...!! I'll have your neck for that!" The two shot each other death glares; such a 'lovely' first impression. "No, no, we're not doing this!" Mina pulled Marin back, as Dyan himself yanked Hanako back by the scruff of her collar. "Hana, I thought I told you not to bite off the heads of every person who ticks you off? That's the whole reason you had an inquiry with the Head Captain just last week." He shuddered, remembering what had happened. Marin was swinging her arms around wildly- so was Hanako in return; the two women were giving off terrifying killing intent. Taking a moment to breathe; Marin stated in an expaserated tone, "Anyway, you're here. Get to work, and shove off." Kisara was all-too-tempted to smack Marin in the back of the head. "Don't be judgmental just because they're a different race than you. Just be glad they're going to help us, alright?" She turned to Dyan, "So you're some Demon Way big-shot, huh? I guess you'd be an equal to me." Dyan chuckled weakly. "Not at all. I hear you're a mage. Compared to you, I'm just a conjurer of cheap tricks." He sighed. "Besides, I'm not here because of my skill in Kidō, although I am a capable caster. I'm here because of my power. Hana and I have to back up the situation with your group, and the rest of the denizens here, if the crack proves to be past the point of no return." Marin rolled her eyes. "Just fix it and go home. You're all eye-sores." Hanako had to be restrained in order to not throttle Marin. "Stupid red-haired bimbo...!" Dyan sighed. "Your highness, I'm sorry for the...trouble...my wife is causing." He placed a hand on his forehead as if trying to be rid of a large headache. "It's actually sad, no one ever gets to see her good side..." "It's fine, think nothing of it." Maka reassured him. "The fact of the matter is you're here to help. Thank you!" "Everyone, file out, we have a situation to fix!" Dyan ordered, and there was a resounding "YES SIR!" as the Shinigami (followed by Maka, her guards, and Kisara's group) immediately filed out of the castle. "Everyone, assume the positions around the distortion!" Dyan continued to bark these orders as the Kidō Corps members, as well as he and Hanako, Flash Stepped into the air, taking a stance as their hands began to glow. Mina watched them, looking at them with a tad bit of contempt. "Let's see what you Shinigami can do." THe Shinigami began to chant in unison, their hands glowing with bright energy as they cast their influence around the dimensional distortion. "My Pleas to Heaven no longer unanswered, call forth the hand of God to heal the wound of the Devil, and bring forth the light of Salvation. Jigen Chitosefū!" From their hands, a "veil" was cast, which draped itself in a manner over the crack, as it began to try and purify the tear in the dimensions. ----- From a fair distance away, Juanita snapped her fingers; letting out a pulse of demonic energy that interfered with the Demon Way spell; causing the crack to widen. Naturally, she had plans upon plans- but while this did not really affect her in the slightest, Juanita was more than happy to make things worse, just for a laugh. "If there's something you can stop, just try and stop it..." "Tch...!" Dyan hissed as their veil began to falter. "Everyone, stand fast! Try to supplement the Kidō!" Discussions of War "You fail to see where you were in the wrong at all, don't you Mashiro?" Ragna sighed as he flipped his feet up onto the table where he, Mashiro, and Richard were gathered, rested his hand on his hand as he placed it on the chair's armrest. "Aside from your own personal dislike of myself and Stolas, we've done nothing to garner your sending four children to assassinate me, much less including my own grandchild and your sister in the group. What would you have done if I had killed them?" Mashiro gave Ragna a smug look. "Nnnnnnope. I am never wrong; the truce would have solved everything." "You are nothing but a child. Little Maka is a better leader than you, and she's only a few decades old." Ragna jabbed his finger in her direction, his voice filled with contempt. "You believe everything should go your way, thirst for power but have no idea how to handle it, and barely manage to keep your own kingdom under leadership because you're an idol figure. Your younger sister has a far better head on her shoulders than you, and honestly should have inherited this kingdom from your predecessors." Mashiro shot Ragna a look that basically said 'Deal with it'. "Did you not listen to me? All three of us are teamed up, and we all get fair share over what's what. Is that so bad?" "Ma-Mashiro, it's you who don't s-!" Richard began to speak, but Ragna cut him off. "Are you so much of a child you cannot hear your own incoherent babbling? We were already in a state of peace to begin with, each of us presiding over our own Kingdoms without too much interaction with one another. And yet you call an assassination attempt a "truce"?" He had sat up straight by this point, and slammed his fist down onto the table, shattering it in instantly, and stood up, walking over to her, and bending down to look her in the face. "How can you spout such bullshit about a "fair share" when you sent your pitiable assassin troupe as a way to kill me and take my territory. That very act pushes us to the edge of war and you cannot deny that! You know damn well it was a Demon society is a fragile thing as it already is, and you seem to be doing everything in your considerable power to make it worse." Mashiro sighed. "You raise a good point. In fact, I'm sorry. I'll try to stay out of your own personal stuff, but if I have to, I'll lend a hand, even if you're unwilling. That's my final word on this stupid matter." She hurredly began to stomp off, her annoyance apparent. "...She doesn't have much in way of common sense or the proper attitude a woman of her status should have..." Richard sighed. "No. Not really." Ragna growled. "Come. We need to follow her, the crack is widening." The Cardinal Sin Approaches "Captain! The veil! It won't hold!" One of the Kidō Corp members yelled down towards Dyan, whose blue-eyes blazed with anger. "This shouldn't be happening! This Kidō should be more than enough for a dimensional distortion of this level! Everyone! Get back! It won't hold, and the crack is about to break!" Dyan ordered, and the Corps members and Hanako fell back, regrouping with Kisara's group and Maka, who looked worried. "It can't be fixed?" She asked Dyan, looking desperate. "We have to switch to Plan B, your Highness." Dyan replied, raising his hand and gripping the hilt of the blade on his back. "Right now...Togabito, the sinners of hell, are about to pour through that crack in droves when it bursts. This will difficult, Togabito look for nothing but to escape their punishment. As the Makai is technically part of hell, it will not reject them. However, while powerful, the Togabito won't be the only problem." "What do you mean, the only problem?" Mina repeated Dyan's last words to him. "What else is worse than a group of empowered sinners?" "The Kushanāda." "The...the what?" Mina questioned. "The Kushanāda." Dyan repeated. "Hana, care to give an explanation?" Hanako explained, "Kushanāda are the guardians of Hell. They are all very large beings who walk on all fours. They have elongated skull-like heads and a large piece of armor on their right shoulders. They watch over the denizens of Makai who were forcefully sent here, punishing them for their crimes they committed while they were alive. If they catch a condemned demon, they will eat it, only for it to revive itself sometime later, like 30 years later. They also affect our duties; providing assistance. They can also use chains; and sure enough, each one is a juggernaut; never stopping until it's duty is done." "W-what do we do?" Maka looked like she was about to panic, but she had enough dignity not to run away and wave her arms around in a panic. "Nothing we can do." Dyan replied simply. "We wait...and take out everything that comes our way." "Tch...Shinigami..." Mina grumbled, but she kept quiet as the crack shattered entirely, releasing immense, foul reiatsu into the Makai. Thousands of odd forms began to spill from the crack, landing onto the ground and building, figures clothed in white with chains. "AHAHAHAHAHAAHA!" One of the figures let out an absolutely insane bellow of a laugh. "WE'VE BROKEN THROUGH! WE'VE ESCAPED FROM THE UPPER ECHELEON OF HELL! HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO MAKAI, WE'RE HERE AND WE'RE TAKING EVERYTHING!" "Such noisy trash..." Dyan growled, pulling his blade off his back. The cloth slipped off and faded, revealing a large, oversized bowie knife. "Hana, don't be overeager and trip, alright?" Kisara stared up at the sky, merely sighing. "...Ah, well. Looks like it's time to get down to business...again." Holding her hand; the same sword that she wielded as a sign of her split personality. Swinging the sword forwards, it released a compressed blast of negative energy, tearing through the sky and destroying a single Togabito. "Bakudō #61, Rikujōkōrō!" One of the Kidō Corps members released this powerful binding spell upon a Togabito. "Your Highness, get to safety behind your guards." Dyan moved forward, gripping his blade. "A battle like this isn't for someone so young as you, and it could cause trouble for Other World is your father came back to find you harmed." "Y-yes." The young demon heeded Dyan's warnings, moving to stand behind the security of her guards. "Sōtengetsu, Hana, why don't we show these sinners what's for? A few thousand lost souls won't mean anything to King Enma." Dyan began to let off a powerful reiatsu as his blade was immersed in a powerful green reiryoku. "Getsuga Tenshō!" He swung his giant bowie knife, letting loose a massive, flowing current of powerful spiritual energy, immediately turning several Togabito to dust in one fell sweep. This was the power of a Captain. Mina was actually left in shock. She'd never seen such a powerful blast of spiritual energy, not since her Master had shown her how to use the Spirit Gun. Shinigami or not, at least the man had power. Hanako withdrew her Zanpakutou. "Easy pickings." She pointed her Zanpakutou at the demons, as it transformed into a staff. "Kasshinkon!" Swinging the staff around, Hanako launched an obsidian wave towards her targets, eliminating several at a time. Marin charged scarlet demonic energy between her hands, before channeling it upon her fist. "Hawk Fist!" Punching towards the numerous Togabito, a whirling torrent of crimson and black was released, eradicating everything in her path. Dyan shot through these Togabito, moving them down with swift, brutal sword swings. For all his talk of them being strong, they weren't putting up much of a fight. One of the Togabito tried to take him from the side, but he spun, cutting them in half with Sōtengetsu. "DURAH!" A rousing battle cry from a Togabito caused Dyan to turn, just in time to raise Sōtengetsu up as a shielding, blocking the blade of an oncoming brown-haired Togabito. "Y-you!" Dyan growled as the duo crashed into the ground. Meanwhile, Mina had already formed her bow, and like some weird kind of sniper, was picking off Togabito with ease using her Heilig Pfeil bolts, piercing their hearts. Melissa aimed her twin guns up at the skies; shouting at the top of her lungs, "Muzzle Roar!" She raised her arms up while firing and then subsequently brought them down while slowly separating them, until they were fully split, where her arms became parallel with the ground. The resulting appearance of the combined shots was reminiscent of a cascading waterfall; raining destruction down upon her foes. "Oh you've got to be-!" Mina groaned, ducking as a giant blast of energy shot over her head. "These are sinners!? Whose grand design was it to give them this much power!?" She quickly reloaded her bow with spiritual energy, quickly firing several bolts that actually got deflected. "I hate this." She grumbled. Marin glanced over to her, sighing. "Well, what did you expect? Demonic energy and spiritual energy are polar opposites. Like light and darkness- one will bounce off the other most of the time, but they're inseperable. I hope that made any sense." She glanced over at a giant Togabito. "You need to fight fire with fire." She made a pose- her fist poised at her target. "Like...THIS!" The Power of Destruction charged on her fist- she released another blast of crimson energy which caused the Togabito to be eradicated from the inside-out. "GETSUGA TENSHŌ!" Dyan's battle cry came from the far distance as a massive amount of green reiatsu exploded, knocking back the brown-haired Togabito he was doing battle with. "Tch...these bastards..." Bright green energy erupted from his blade, and he swung it at the Togabito he was squaring off against. "Shōgetsu!" He cried, as the energy branched out, creating a spiraling caged sphere around the Togabito. "That'll keep you locked up until you warden gets here." Kisara's eyes flashed red momentarily; as she sacrificed a small amount of her stamina; condensing stray energy onto her blade, adding her own power into the mix as darkness erupts; the darkness swelled around the sword, before converging at a singular point—the tip of the sword; intensifying the kinetic energy that was about to be released by convergence and acceleration. "Darkside Onslaught!!" Kisara howled; as she unleashed a massive horizontal slash in the form of a jet-black blast of darkness in a semicircle centered around her body; releasing an enormous sphere of destruction from the center of her body, annihilating everything around her. Hanako swung her staff around wildly; battering numerous Togabito silly through sheer brute force. "I'll kill you all, I swear to hades!" Spinning around, her movements began to whip up a storm; decimating a fair amount of demons as she let go of the tornado, wreaking havoc. The new group reorganised in a circle, looking a bit worn for wear as they looked down upon the Togabito wrecking havoc. Dyan was looking a bit irritated at all of this. "They're like roaches...." He growled. "If we don't erase them all soon, the Kushanāda will arrive. That's when the real trouble starts." "You keep talking about these things like we have to be afraid." Mina snapped. "They're just wardens of Hell, why do we, the non-sinners, have to be afraid of them?!" Hanako almost slapped Mina in the back of the head. "They destroy anything in their path- while they are designed to take down Togabito, they can and WILL go after normal people, so shut up, okay?" "Speak of the literal devil..." Dyan growled, and he motioned for everyone to look upwards towards the opened crack in the sky. A large hand was reaching down from it, before soon, the entire body of a gargantuan, ape-like being with elongated skull-like heads and a large piece of armor on their right shoulders. It was quickly followed by several other figures, and, if Dyan's warning hadn't been enough, the shrieks of fear from the other Togabito were enough explanation. One of the Kushanāda reached down, scooping up several Togabito and devouring them; bloodcurdling screams echoing throughout the dimension, and causing little Maka to shiver in fear. "T..they ate them..." Mina's eyes and mouth were twitching as if she was about to go insane. Sure, she had seen Hollows eat souls before. But that was more of "nature taking it's course" than anything, and she always had a chance to stop it. These...Kushanāda...seemed to be more a personification of gluttony, devouring Togabito with abandon. Kisara wigged out for a moment. "...Yeah. Remind me, we are NOT returning here again. This place gives me the creeps. Besides, we have enough eccentricity with Melissa here; we don't need Marin's sister." Marin interrupted, "I don't see the problem with Mashiro. She's not even a bad person, just a little greedy. And stupid. Actually, you're right. Let's get the hell out of here." The Kushanāda had finished devouring the Togabito in droves, having left a mess of blood, clothing and bones scattered onto the ground. They slowly began to turn, looking towards the Dyan and the group under his command. "Captain! The Kushanāda are about to become hostile!" One of the Kidō corps members called out to Dyan. "I know. This is going to get tricky." Dyan braced himself. "Everyone, get ready. They're coming. If they catch us, we won't be able to leave." "....because we'll be dead?" Mina asked. "No. We'll become Togabito as well, and forever trapped here...by the Chains of Hell." END